Dear Moms.
My 3 year old scratched his nose with his nail and drew blood. It is about an inch long scratch across the bridge.
I put on neosporin and it is healing....
My question, to facilitate healing and preventing a scar...how many times a day would you put on neosporin on a scab. I usually put 3...but at nite should I add another dose as he sleeps or not necessary?
Thank you for your good advice -- as always! (Please nothing negative :))
Jilly
P.S. I so much appreciate your advice and insight. I feel better knowing that I am doing the best I can for my son. I am living abroad so while the doctors here are excellent....your input is extremely value added and useful...And they are best for the big stuff, not the everyday stuff. So thank you!
More is not better in this case. My son sliced his nose with a sheet rock knife (long story about that one) when he was 6. Once it was cleaned out the doctor said neosporin in the morning and at night with a fresh bandaid at each changing. No more no less. Healed in no time at all and I can see the scar because I know it's there however it really doesn't exist anywhere except my head. lol
Jilly:
DO NOT over do it. Let the body heal it naturally. I would put neosporin on it twice a day. A band aid before he goes to bed so he can't reopen it....
Don't worry about scarring. He's only 3 so his skin will grow and change over time.
Cheryl is spot on. It won't scar, it's a scratch. The body has awesome self-healing powers and over medicating it will prevent it from doing it on it's own. I'd use it once in the morning, then put a little sunscreen on it in the middle of the day (the sun can hinder the healing process), and a little at night. It needs to breathe and the air needs to get in there so it can heal itself :)
The thing with young children is... their scratches heal very quickly and it does not scar.
But remember, that scabs and the following so called "scar" can take time to go away.
The epidermis replaces skin cells, regularly. But it is a process.
The scratch your son has, is not a deep.... scratch.
Its just a cut.
Neosporin itself is not going to stop it from scarring. Neosporin is used to prevent infection. But your son's cut... already scabbed over. It is not a raw bleeding cut, anymore.
Your son's cut... IS already healing. It has a scab. Let is process.
Even after the scab falls off... there will MIGHT be an indication that a cut was there... because, sometimes you have a slight line of demarcation, of where a cut used to be. BUT, this often goes away. In time.
Put sunscreen over the healed cut, if there is scar tissue.
But I doubt your son's cut will form heavy tissue scarring on it... because, it was just a superficial cut.
My kids, have had many cuts/scrapes... everywhere on their body, and they don't have, a scar. Scars, are not always permanent. It depends on the type of wound.... and the type of skin a person has, as well.
Vitamin E is great for prevention of scaring. I'd start putting it on now...
Jilly,
SO many of your questions seem to be about scabs & scratches on your son's face. Have you ever saked your pediatrician about treating a facial scratch/scab? Obviously, what you're getting here isn't enough...
As long as he doesn't scratch it, it may not scar. My 3 year old is a major scab picker. His nose is all red from old (some more than 2 years ago) scars. Vitamin E definitely is the way to go once the worry of infection is gone, and in addition to the neosporin. I think it healed my son's scabs faster than the Neosporin did.
If it's just a scratch it should be fine. But if you need to, put pure vitamin E on it. It'll prevents scars and even takes away scars if used often enough.
I've never been too worried about run of the mill scratches. I would just let it heal on it's own. My DD is 5.5 & none of her scratches (and she has had MANY) have ever scarred or had any issues.
